Hong Kong Voters Show 'Patriotism' at Polls

9/10/2012 12:02AM

After the Hong Kong government backtracks on a plan that would have required schools to add "moral and national" education to curricula, voters show up in force in the city's partly democratic election. The WSJ's Te-Ping Chen has the details.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... the ... let's plan council acts and has been overshadowed by a government decision to back down on a law ... that would have required ... teachers to teach patriotism and classroom ... I'm Deborah con you watching Asia Today and joined now by taking ten reporter here in Hong Kong Cate ... thing before we get into the election let's talk about the underlying issue that has really dominated the news here ... at thousands were driven out onto the streets in protest against AddThis patriotism on right ... now ... it was pretty incredible to see just the spectacle of massive tens of thousands of people ... of letting the area around government offices where teenagers ... camping for over a week ... of and even setting up to his hunger strike tends to be about a dozen of them ... saying they were not going to eat into the government's broad is a controversial plans to start teaching pitches Mobile schools patients at the heart of the issue really is is that Hong Kong ... felt like the ... ad tying that was conflicting they're kind of media common as patriotism values on Hong Kong which really regards itself differently right ... that's right ... um has planned for to change Hong Kong's of educational system to to create these lessons ... came after which and how Chinese president ... came to Hong Kong cinema two years ago talk that needs to start teaching Hong Kong schoolchildren ... you know about the great virtues of loving the motherland some actually win this thing was actually wants resins are very suspicious of him when the government came up with education materials that did ... actually two of the set of very rosy one sided vision of China's one party state of representing the streets in July we saw up to ninety thousand protesters ... of it which ... you know the resistance is to be built in the past week we thought you just accept camp outside government offices on Friday night we had a hundred twenty thousand protesters there ... were no organized estimates ... of which again you know clearly was putting the tree in a really a comparable position effect the document a foreigner ... I answer the next day ... the magician ... just as you said made a complete U turn and said ok we're not gonna make it so quite thing anymore ... how is this how work and Lee's say at this point how this is impacting ... the Legislative Council election which you know ... is not a fully democratic election night ... that's right this election in the most democratic one in Hong Kong's history ... but not completely democratic when his much it's still it's just slightly over half the seats in the legislature that would have been elected now ... um but a directive oh ... um but this that this issue budget issues that we did have a big impact on election you will get the voter turnout ... of this year we saw about fifty three percent turnout which is much higher than the last what's the election of a turnout of forty ... five percent ... of an analyst to sale of at least are from Texas this very conspicuous ... incredibly nor easy of attention that encourages break outside government offices and if the convention not spectacle of investors being forced on the eve of election to trump the for a controversial plan ... is the un basically Hong Kong politics is broken down into the democracy camp and a prayer China can upset ... when you look at this issue you think any sale ones one side in a one over the other one ... you'd think that I'm in this Christian voter turnout would benefit the pro democracy camp more especially given that issue ... every implanted ... on that side of the city is pro Democrats are behaving very badly divided ... in recent years and so well we do anticipate that they will manage to maintain the level of seats that they've had in the city but to secure ... a lead of look but it's really given the Memphis beyond that just because they are so that the upswing to match the resources the organization by the FBI's probe into camp ... and this is an easy way around at the new chief executive to Hong Kong regard critics say that he is an implant from the Communist Party this is probably in his first major crisis and that he is so how ... what are people saying you're feelin into the come out well for ... for backing down are or what are people saying look even inside the administration on the long can bulls say we did not handled so well ... and there was clearly very you know early on indications that there was a lot of public resistance to the education than in July gainers Massive Protests producing tens of thousands people taking the streets of the issue of ... the government's line has been even were talkin about where we were going to press on exactly as planned ... um and so when you start giving effect of their offices and at the plant that released next eight days of an issue for months on and ... and so when the incident again got back to square because he had people from the striking four days although for weak in one case ... of ... the of this he was only realize that I'm ... not going to do something that does this elections in the next day ... and some even canceled his first official overseas trip came back and said ok we're working everything ... out make this mandatory but we had to make the server brought reversal doesn't make them look very much in control that the situation and so you know ... he's not getting great marks on how to handle this issue does it say it is the most like the damage had been done I and cake thanks Fran that's the thing ... you're watching Asia Today and DeVore Khan ...